Still on my Farscape kick, aided and abetted by Netflix. Last night I watched the most recent disc and boy howdy. There was your standard plot where the beefcake main character has to pretend to be someone and something he is not. And I must say, Ben Browder does a painfully bad Australian (British?) accent. It was so awful that I wouldn’t have been able to guess just what type of accent he was going for, if I hadn’t known the context. Honestly, I don’t know how the rest of the cast and crew could take it. I nearly turned it off. But that doesn’t mean I’m not begging for more. Yes, I have a problem.

The little man had his second swimming lesson today. Once again we arrived a bit early, but this week the pool was nearly empty…because it was so incredibly warm and gorgeous outside. This gave us time to chat with one of the only other occupants of the pool, a very sweet eight year-old boy. When he saw the little man inadvertently swallow some pool water the boy said “oh, you don’t want to do that. The water has Listerine in it. The whole pool is full of it.” My mind ran with that. I was hoping it was Cool Mint instead of Natural Citrus. Ewww.

I made an attempt to get the menfolk out of the house, because it is so crazy warm out there today, but the menfolk, they aren’t having it. The little man did change into shorts and a t-shirt, but strictly for indoor purposes only. Probably for the best. There’s some sort of air quality alert today. Sigh.

Yesterday was the day for fashionable vegan-friendly bags. Popgadget posted about the Queen Bee bags, available via Buy Olympia and OTSU (it’s probably just as well I didn’t make it to the latter the last time I was in San Francisco - I would have really blown my wad). Then someone in the comments mentioned Stitchpixie (her monster-faced coin purses are so very cute) and someone else pointed me in the direction of Matt&Nat. They make vegan-safe bags and fabulous footwear too. But why do their kickass Trinity boots have to go for $125?! Youch.

Bonus: Folks are heading down to SXSW soon for films, interactive panels, and to rock. I’ve only skimmed the listings, but there seems to be a lot of good stuff in too little time, as usual. Naturally my eye was drawn to a short film called Vegan Candy.
Plus: This so isn’t ready for prime time yet, but fear can be a great motivator sometimes. Ok, deep breath. I’ve mocked up what the site redesign will look like. There’s still some tweaking to do, and I’ll need a lot of help from the husband this weekend to move all of my archives into the CMS. But I think we’re actually going to do it this time. Here’s a sneak peek. Be gentle, please.
And: So I’ve been on this Beastie Boys/Grand Royale email list forevah, and it doesn’t get much traffic, like, at all, but I did get a heads up last night. ONE NIGHT ONLY - on March 23rd, to be specific, movie theaters across America will be screening a sneak preview of Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That! Except that, in the less than 24 hours since I received said email, the title of the movie has already been toned down to An Awesome Night with the Beastie Boys. Hmmm.

We leave for Iceland one week from Friday. The little man’s passport showed up a couple of weeks ago, but the husband hasn’t gotten his back just yet. I was supposed to remind him to call about it on Monday, but I failed to do so. So yesterday morning I pulled a large piece of cardboard out of the recycling bin, wrote “CALL PASSPORT OFFICE” on it and left it on his desk, as he wasn’t awake yet. This was unnecessary as he had, apparently, already called on Monday. And was told it would arrive on the 15th or 16th. But we leave on the 17th, so he wound up having to expedite it after all. The worst part about this…he claims he imparted this information to me on Monday but I wasn’t listening, like, at all (I was actually working on the redesign of this site). So he was all “thanks for paying attention to me when I speak.” Doh. Bad wife strikes again.

We’ve established that I am an NPR nerd. One of the best parts of my morning commute is listening to Future Tense. This morning’s segment featured la la, a new online music service that is offering full-length CDs for one dollar plus 49 cents shipping by letting members trade used discs. Naturally I signed up asap. Tonight I plan to rummage through stacks of my forgotten CDs, ones that have been sitting around collecting dust, and offer them up for trade.

Bonus: On a related note, my first and foremost LaLa association will always be with the lovely and multi-talented Alison.
Plus: Yesterday I was chatting with some co-workers and wound up recounting Afrojet’s harrowing tale from a few years back (when he was ludicrously detained, temporarily, as a suspected terrorist just because he was taking some photos). Later I sent them the links. One replied with: “Shoot back! Long live sousveillance!” I declare that to be the word of the day.
And: I have Kielbasa breath. Lunch is over. Time to get back to work.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Chicago. This summer seems like as good a time as any for a visit. Especially since Pitchfork just launched the site for their second music fest. Ted Leo, Mountain Goats, Mission of Burma and more. What’s not to like? Oh yeah, it’s a music fest. My first experience with one happened to be the very first Lollapalooza. I remember being annoyed by all of the drunken fools…especially the ones who were burning piles of cardboard pizza boxes for no apparent reason. It was a warm summer’s day, it’s not like they needed a heat source. And man, that was super smelly. And it had rained recently so the ground was all muddy. And I’m short so it was difficult to see anything…other than all of the drunken fools. Hmmm, maybe I’m talking myself out of this already.

In other memories from 1991…I’ve never been a sports fan, but I do recall the Twins winning the World Series that year. But the 1987 Twins win, now that I remember much more clearly, because my brother was still alive and he was such a very big Twins fan (his was more of a quiet intensity, rather than the spazzy yet infectious enthusiasm I’m known for). During one of the ‘87 games my dad, brother and I were upstairs at Sweeney’s Saloon, attending my step-sister’s wedding reception. Rather than interacting with the other guests we were hiding out in a corner, huddled around a very small television. I didn’t much care about the game. It was just good to be with those two. And I would gladly subject myself to any amount of sports viewing - if it meant the three of us could be together again.

Since 2002 I’ve made half a dozen attempts at redesigning this site and have scrapped them all. This morning I was oddly motivated to try again. Let’s hope this effort isn’t doomed as well. If I pull it off this time it will mean squeaky clean CSS, permalinks, comments, RSS feeds, and more. But I’ve promised that to you lot before. (Full disclosure: headline pulled from here. It’s a good read.)
Bonus: And on to hard-boiled Hollyweird. And I don’t mean the Academy Awards because I quite predictably punked out, staying home in my pajamas last night rather than attending an Oscars party as I’d intended. No, I’ve just started reading Bruce Campbell’s second book - Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way. I love that man. So much.
Plus: It’s not news to anyone that I am flickr-addicted. But I love flickr even more whenever something like the following happens. Ranjit posts this photo. I post a comment, saying someone should turn this into a book. And then, yay, someone did. That’s the sort of thing that makes my world go ’round.
And: Also fabulously fantastic, over the weekend I heard from two of my favorite people who no longer live in Minnesota. Last night my old friend Monica called, to gab about her impending wedding (next month! everyone is flying here!) and my darling April sent a Chinese New Year package, filled with goodies from Beijing. Thanks ladies!

Like Milk and Cake’s Thursday, my Friday was ridculously productive. Ran oodles of errands. Among them…picked up some disposable contact lenses from the eye doc (for swimming/working out), bought my MiL a birthday present, and finally had my danged lobes stretched. And in the afternoon I took the little man to his first swimming lesson. I think it went well. We both liked his instructor but I made sure to stay nearby, in the pool (but not hovering so near as to be a distraction). Hopefully his comfort level will increase as the lessons progress, and then I can go hang out in the hot tub during them. Aww yeah.

Lately I’ve had a terrible hankering for vegan spaghettios. Used to be such a product was readily available, in a can, at the co-op. But I haven’t seen ‘em in years. Instead I made do with some Imagine Foods tomato soup, Nate’s meatless balls and macaroni, with Soymage parmesan sprinkled on top. It hit the spot.

Something that isn’t quite so satisfying…the little man has become a homebody, just like the husband. Neither wants to leave the house today, but I don’t want to miss Vladmaster (being as I skipped last night’s performance in favor of an early bedtime). So it looks like I’ll be flying solo for family day at the Walker. How lame is that? Sigh.

I’m in Mistress-of-the-Obvious-Mode…but whoa, it’s March. How’d that happen? And how the hell did I just manage to overwrite my January 2006 archives? I’m such a freaking genius. Hopefully that can be recovered from a backup (my fingers are crossed). Anyhow, we’ve got an incredibly busy weekend coming up, and I refuse to punk out like I did last weekend…when I stayed in my pajamas most of Saturday and fell asleep at 8pm for the night. Friday afternoon the little man has his first one-on-one swimming lesson. And the Walker’s Free First Saturday event is upon us. I’m especially stoked about this one because Vladmaster Viewmaster will be in the house! I’ve been a fan of her work for a couple of years now, so being present for a simultaneous Vladmaster experience is going to be super sweet. Sunday we’ve got another family function followed by an Academy Awards party. I’d say my dance card is full.
Bonus: Another artist I’ve long admired is Leslie Hall, but somehow I haven’t been keeping up with her projects. A co-worker gave me the heads up about her new videos. Be bedazzled!
Plus: There was this blog I enjoyed over at Absolutely Vile. When Anna called it quits many months ago she invited readers to sign up to a mailing list, that would keep us posted about her next project(s). I just got an email today. She’s launching Door Sixteen, to document her “upcoming renovation and restoration of a late-1800’s brick rowhouse in the Hudson Valley.” Neat.
And: Last night I was treated to a sneak peek of the Russian vampire/horror/sci-fi flick Night Watch. I heartily endorse it. Especially for Buffy buffs.